The invention relates to a plate made of insulating material, in particular mineral fibers which are to be used for heat and/or sound insulation of buildings and for mounting on supports, in particular for inserting between rafters. Foamed material are also taken into consideration as insulating material for the inventive use. The term plate is to be understood to be a general term i.e., the invention is also usable in other products made of mineral fibers or foamed materials which can be webs of goods or rolls.
The field of use of insulating plates for sound and/or heat insulation is very wide. Mineral fibers are preferred as insulating material and among mineral fibers stone wool is used because of its excellent characteristics. Preferably, the mineral fiber plates are used in buildings or structures or structural parts and are mounted on supports, mainly between supports, beams, rafters etc. Hitherto, the mineral fiber plates were retained "passively", i.e., they had to be mounted or anchored with special means, for example, by means of bonding. Normally, particular structures are provided for insulation in the ceiling area of buildings, whereby the mineral fiber plates are retained by gravity. Many times, the mineral plates are laminated with a foil made of aluminum or plastic whose both side edges extend over the actual mineral fiber plate and are reinforced, so that these mineral fiber plates are mounted by means of clamps, or the like, on the foil edges.
The mounting of mineral fiber insulating material or mineral fiber dampening material is connected with considerable difficulties in the practical application which has several causes. For reasons of manufacturing, mineral fiber plates are made only in certain width and marketed accordingly, that is, mineral fiber plates are mainly made in a uniform width of, for example, 62.5 cm. In contrast thereto, practice has shown that the structural supports, for example, rafters do not have a uniform width with respect to each other. For example, the free play between the individual rafters of a roof structure varies between 52 cm and 80 cm.
When using insulating material which is made from soft foam material on a plastic basis, it is possible without great difficulties to compress the soft foam material more or less and to slide it between the rafters, wherein it is retained by more or less strong clamps, because this foam material has a very low weight. However, because of the high danger for human beings and material in case of fire, the construction supervising agencies, the fire department and the insurance companies try to urge the use of insulating materials made on a basis of minerals instead of foam material on a plastic basis, due to the increasing importance of the heat dampening or insulation of buildings caused by the energy problems. However, as already explained above, one had only considerably difficult to handle mounting system at one's disposal for the use of insulating materials made on a mineral basis.
It is a conventional technology that mineral fiber plates are made in that a mass of mineral fibers is bonded into a plate by hardening of binder agents, for example, phenol resins. A mineral fiber plate made in this manner is very stiff in the transverse direction, so that it cannot be compressed by hand, at least not if the mineral fiber plate has such a thickness that it can be used for the purpose of heat insulation at all. If one would like to insert such a mineral fiber plate between rafters of different free play, it cannot be done by a simple compressing, in particular when the distance difference, as is usual, is more than 1 to 2 cm. In this case one must cut the mineral fiber plates accordingly which not only means a considerable operating and time effort, but also a loss in material. Even these adapted and cut mineral fiber plates must be retained with special mounting means.